Of Accidental Kisses
by Dream.Big.Die.Free
Summary: This, right here, right now, is the most awkward situation she's ever been in, Patricia decides, sitting in the passenger seat across from Eddie. Really, she didn't even know how she'd gotten there.
1. Of Misunderstandings

**So, em, first HOA story... I hope you'll like it. **

**Disclaimer: As I am sure everyone is aware of, I do not own House Of Anubis.  
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This, right here, right now, is the most awkward situation she's ever been in, Patricia decides, sitting in the passenger seat across from Eddie. Really, she didn't even know how she'd gotten there, playing with her fingers quietly as Eddie drove. They'd bought the tickets so long ago, back before the summer holidays, when things were still good between them. She'd almost forgotten about them, after everything wanting to go and see the Sick Puppies in London seemed juvenile and besides, they hardly ever speak anymore. It just didn't seem fathomable that they'd even use their tickets. But then Amber – god she didn't even want to dwell on the fact that _Amber_ of all people was the only person she spoke to in Anubis House – announced that Eddie and Patricia wouldn't be around on Saturday night for pizza because they were going to a concert and everyone seemed so excited that Patricia was going to do something other than school work that even she couldn't bear to disappoint them.

Plus, Eddie didn't seem too thrilled with the idea at the time, which gave her just enough pleasure to go along with it.

Speaking of the devil himself, Eddie is awfully silent tonight, even if he is around Patricia. Normally, she's noticed, he'll pretend like she's not there. If they're all studying together, or if he's helping the entire house conjugate irregular French verbs, he'll address the group as if she's not actually present. Even if, in rare moments, they are alone together he will continue about his business as if she doesn't exist, singing aloud, chewing loudly and flicking quickly as if she is not watching the television with him.

However, tonight, Eddie is silent, has even left the radio off, just got in the car his Mum bought him for his eighteenth birthday. He'd already had one at home in America, Patricia remembered him telling her, some kind of Range Rover, but he needed one in England too, apparently. This is probably the third time he'd used it since May and it is already nearly Christmas. The only sound he makes in the occasional tap on his thumbs on the steering wheel.

The rain is pouring tonight too, which means the outdoor concert seem less and less appealing as they draw closer. They are that kind of impenetrable sheets of water that pound on the windshield, making the rain bounce up again off the ground after it initially hits it and it forces Eddie to drive slower than he normally would.

Speaking of speed, Patricia checks the time discreetly as she can, and she can feel her eyes widen slightly as she does. They've been driving for a lot longer than she thought and it's getting dangerously close to when the Sick Puppies are supposed to arrive onstage.

"Eddie," the sound of his name in the silence sounds strange for a moment, and it takes Patricia a second to realise she's the one who's said it. Eddie appears as shocked as Patricia feels, and she can sense him regarding her out of the corner of those brown eyes. He has extraordinarily long eyelashes; Patricia remembers that from before, from being close enough to admire them and their autumn leaf colour.

"Are you lost?" she regrets it as soon as she says it, because the instant it's out of her mouth she can see Eddie seize up. His biceps tense, his grip on the wheel tightens and the muscles in his jaw clench up. Boys do not like to be doubted, a fact Patricia momentarily forgot.

"No," he spits out, "I know exactly where we are." If the tension was palpable before, it's suffocating now and Patricia can feel it again, that anger she can normally control is bubbling up again.

"Look, Edison, I am not trying to offend you, but it's ten to nine and we're still miles from London, you're either lost or delaying us on purpose," Patricia scoffs, sitting up straighter in her chair, leaning toward Eddie and glaring accusingly. If there is anything other than the colour of his eyelashes that Patricia could never forget from their relationship, it is that Eddie had _always_ been afraid of her when she glowered at him with her black rimmed blue eyes. He called them 'worse-than-death-glares'.

"Oh yeah, because I _so_ enjoy hanging out with you!" Eddie snaps back and if possible Patricia's scowl becomes even more intense.

"Then why didn't you just give up your ticket and let Amber go in your place!" their voices are rising in decibels now, each one louder than its predecessor.

"Because that would be like letting you win!"

Despite the rain getting heavier, Patricia can feel the car speeding up beneath them and can hear the sound of the engine strain against the accelerator. Eddie doesn't seem to care, even though Patricia is now gripping one side of the seat, a little frightened. Patricia knows that Eddie is as aware as she is about the consequences of driving too fast, but he is angry now. Patricia also knows that when Eddie is angry, logic and rational goes out the window. Especially when he's angry at _her._

"Okay, fine, whatever, you win, but slow down!"

Then Patricia is afraid, because all of a sudden the car jolts forward picking up more speed than she ever anticipated.

"Pull over!" The fear is coming back now, in the way it used to when she got into a car, the panic is rising in her throat and she feels like she is going to be sick all of a sudden. Eddie, for his part, doesn't seem to notice she's even spoken, his eyes glued to the road, unwavering.

"Eddie, please!"

Patricia is thrown forward and it is only her seatbelt that stops her from careening through the windshield as Eddie slams on the brakes.

"What is your problem?" she screams at him, panting now as the car starts up again and Eddie pulls slowly over to the side of the road. He still doesn't look at her, keeps his eyes ahead of him, fixed on the rain.

"Seriously, do you want to have us both killed?" she shouts at him, her breath fast and shallow while he shifts his eyes shift from the road to his hands.

She knows for definite now that she should never have agreed to come. Maybe, being honest with herself, she thought that things might become easier between them. Maybe, she thought he might make her laugh again. Instead, she's terrified and cold. Instead, she just wants to go home to bed, curl up and let Amber bring her a cup of tea and some chocolate.

"I hate you, do you know that?" it is possibly the single most honest thing Patricia has said in four months, yet she doesn't even mean to say it. It slips out as she sits in silence, waiting for him to calm down. He looks up at her and for the first time since before summer break, since before Fabian called to tell her, before Joy and the accident, their eyes meet and don't instantly shy away. Patricia holds his gaze, and he hers, and she knows in that instant that this, her _hating_ him is the reason for the avoidance, the dismissals, for pretending she's not there. Because he knows, she can tell by the look in his eyes, he's known for months. He's more aware of her hatred that he's ever been of anything else.

"Of course I know," he barks back and suddenly it is a show down, a fight like their old ones, a staring contest neither of them are willing to lose. Ice eyes against chocolate, cold against heat, and anger and pain all mixed in together in a car of the side of some unmarked road in the English countryside.

Then it's no longer eyes on eyes, but lips on lips and Patricia finds her hands in Eddie's hair and all she can think is, 'god it's as soft as it ever was.' He tastes like peppermint and hoagies and his lips are fierce and furious and hot. His hands on her waist, pulling her across the car and she scrambles to climb over the gear stick, following his mouth desperately. He's gripping her so tightly for a moment she's afraid he'll leave bruises, black and blue on her hips, but as she slides her hands down his neck, and shifts her legs so she's straddling him she finds she doesn't care if he leaves marks. That way, she'll know this has been _real. _

They haven't been like this in months, since July, before their exams, when they could still manage to get a moment alone; hands everywhere, Eddie groaning and Patricia begging for more.

She can feel the heat of him all over, he's pressed up against her, breathing so deeply she can feel him move underneath her. His tongue runs over her lips, sticky with some awful strawberry lip gloss Amber forced onto her after she'd pinned her down. Then they are battling for power, each one so used to being out of control these past few months that being in command seems to be the most important thing.

Patricia slowly traces her hands over Eddie's cheekbones, eyes still closed, as he moves his hands slowly up under her black Sick Puppies t-shirt. She shivers as he hints at touching her ribs, playing them as a piano, one by one, slowly up to her chest.

Their hands are slow but their breath quick, yet, after what seems to Patricia like a blissful eternity, they have to disconnect to breathe.

Gasping for air, Patricia leans into Eddie as he starts to kiss up her neck gently, softly. The feeling on his lips on her skin causes her whole body to burn. There was nothing before or after Eddie that felt so unbelievably _good_.

Except, as the air rushes back to her brain and her breathing levels out, she is left with a bitter taste in her mouth. She feels wrong, not like she ever did before. And as her thought process progresses, the idea of what they've just done causes her stomach to churn.

She starts to feel uncomfortable and as Eddie reaches her jawbone, she pulls away.

Eddie's eyes flutter open, and confusion furrows his eyebrows.

"What's wrong, Patricia?" Eddie exhales, whispering to Patricia, "It was just a kiss."

Then suddenly, the atmosphere is broken and Eddie inhales sharply as what he has just said hits him. His eyes land on Patricia and they are desperate and pleading.

"Patricia, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like-" she cuts him off with the worst look he has ever seen, and she can feel it right to her core. Remembering that phone call, Joy and the accident, Eddie and Nina, all at once like a tsunami. The pain, the hurt and the betrayal all over again, flooding back in waves of memories. Patricia stares at Eddie for one more second before throwing herself over into her original seat, straightening her t-shirt. In an instant they are as they were before, as if the past twenty minutes never happened and Patricia is twisting her fingers together again.

"I don't want to talk about it." Her voice is no longer sharp and Eddie wishes in that instant that it was, that he didn't have to hear the disappointment it her tone, the defeat in her words.

"Patricia, please," he makes one last plea, but she is no longer able to look at him. He disgusts her almost as much as she repulses herself.

"Just take me home, Eddie."

After a moment of silence, she heard him start the car. 'Do not cry, do not cry,' she thinks to herself as he turns around and heads away from London towards Anubis house and comfort.

She's not even sure if she can make it that far.

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**So, I hope you enjoyed it. Leave a review if you did. I think I might make it a two shot. Also, if anyone has any prompts, I'd be more than happy to write for them.:) **


	2. Of Midnight Meetings

**Disclaimer: I do not own HOA.**

_"I'll do anything you say, if you say it with your hands. And I'd be smart to walk away, but you're quick sand." -Taylor Swift_

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Patricia sighs into her tea, blowing steam out around her cheeks. It is the dead of the night, the house creeks around her as she stands, leaning heavily against the counter in the kitchen. Pondering. It's only been mere hours since they arrived back after a disastrous half journey to see the Sick Puppies. Her unused, useless ticket lies discarded on her night stand. She tried to sleep but she found herself staring at the ceiling, trying to blink away the memory of his lips trailing down her neck.

It's odd being up so late alone. Of course, when Nina was still around and when she was still interested in all the Sibuna stuff, she was up past curfew all the time. But it was different back then, she always had company. Now, she knows Eddie and KT sneak off by themselves all the time while she tosses and turns. She hasn't really had a full night's sleep since Joy died.

She circles the rim of her mug slowly with a chipped nail, contemplating it all. She'd been in Paris with her parents and Piper when she got the call about the car accident. Coming home to find a fragile, delicate Joy and no friends to support her she'd struggled through it, holding her best friend's hand and praying to a God she didn't even really believe in.

Amber had arrived as soon as the news reached her in Dubai, strolling into Joy's hospital room, carrying flowers for a comatose Joy and chocolates for an angry, isolated Patricia. She'd sat down and started talking about some new fashion trend. Usually, Amber's nattering would annoy Patricia, but oddly it felt like she was just going to pretend Joy was fine until she actually was.

None of that had worked though. Slowly Joy's punctured lungs gave out and eventually it just became a slow wait. She died on a Tuesday. Only Amber and Fabian were at the funeral.

She hasn't cried since, but sometimes she can feel that vague aching feeling at the back of her throat and the odd pain behind her eyes. It tends to plague her during classes, when she has nothing to concentrate on. She finds herself tracing patterns across the margins of her pages, forgetting to take notes and failing class tests. Worse still, she can't really bring herself to care.

She is staring off into space when she hears the soft click of a door closing and the light, even padding of bare feet on the hard wood floor. Freezing, her hand stills on the handle of the mug, smoke still curling up from the depths of her black tea. She knows those footsteps. They are desperately familiar to her.

Then he rounds the corner, top discarded, in these loose flannel pyjama bottom that hang low on his waist. He's clearly been running his fingers through his bracken hair, it is all mussed up and erratic. His eyes blink heavily and he lifts a hand to rub them lazily. For a moment he looks younger, more vulnerable.

Then Patricia remembers that she hates him. For being being awake. For being able to sleep.

"What are you doing up, Eddie?" her voice is harsh and hissed and he knows it's her before he even looks up because she has the kind of voice you remember. She is venomous tonight and she doesn't even care that's she's being cruel, "go away."

He stops in the doorway and stares at her, standing up against the counter, so angry. Her chest is heaving like she's just finished a class of PE. And the tight tank top and very _short _shorts she's donned set his heart racing. He wonders if she knows just how beautiful he thinks she is.

"No," she almost doesn't want to believe he's said it, but he is staring at her defiantly, chin up, brown eyes blazing. It is a familiar look, he used to wear it frequently during their relationship. Evidently, it was the face she fell in love with.

She just stares back at him grimly, she can't even bring herself to muster the grin she feels pulling at the corners of her lips. They are just standing there in the kitchen, in the cold, the rain still pouring outside, looking at each other.

"We need to talk about tonight," he says it slowly, taking a tentative step as he does. When she doesn't say anything – because of a horrible, thick lump lodged in her throat- he takes another. Setting her tea down on the countertop, she can feel herself shrinking back into the corner, trying to outrun something she can't.

"No thanks," she mutters, "I'm good."

He almost smiles as she says this, bemused. She knows him inside out, she realises, as he snorts incredulously. She was expecting that. Rolling his eyes, he too leans up against the counter, mere steps away from her. The contours of his torso are highlighted, the dim lighting casting long, dark shadows on his stomach and chest. She wonders if it still feels the same as before, then she remembers that she already had her hands everywhere just tonight. It was better than she remembered.

"Patricia, come on," his tone is pleading now, so he elongates the vowels, drawing out the last a in her name like he cannot bear to let the word leave his lips, "I didn't mean it... You know it was more than that. It was more than just a kiss..."

He trails off and she figures he can probably see it in her face. Those words bring everything crashing back. Fabian approaching her at the funeral, telling her about Nina and Eddie. The images of lips on lips and skin on skin and it makes her queasy, just to think about. Never mind the stabbing sense of betrayal, the pain that had shot through her heart, they way she couldn't even look at Fabian after he told her. She often wonders if Eddie knows how much that hurt, them kissing, but she then again knows he does. He knows how much she had invested in their doomed from the beginning relationship. These love hate scenarios never work out. Yet, that hadn't stopped her from holding out hope for her own.

He knew about Joy too. She could understand that he wasn't able to make it, being with his Mom in America, but for them to kiss, all the way across an ocean where she couldn't throw milk or orange juice or anything over either of their heads... It felt like someone pouring salt over an already stinging wound.

Then, of course, Nina never returned to Anubis House, which somehow made it worse, like she had run away or something. Patricia remembered thinking she was right to be scared.

"You're right," Patricia concedes and he smiles for a moment before it falls as he realises he's misconstrued her meaning, "it was a mistake."  
That does exactly what she expects it to, it sets him off. His hands curl into fists and his jaw clenches. Maybe, she thinks, if she can get him angry enough, he will leave and hate her and never speak to her again because all this talking is starting to hurt her chest and ribs and stomach.

"Oh my god," he hisses his voice rising in the dead quiet, "will you shut up! You know as well I as do that you wanted that kiss last night."  
She is shaking her head in protest before he's even finished speaking.

"No, I didn't," she insists, "and neither did you." Now he is looking at her like he doesn't quite believe she's really there and she understands because it is a little bit ridiculous. Of course he'd wanted it, she'd felt his need herself, but still, she cannot bring herself to admit that.

"Don't look at me like that," she barks instead, "I've seen the way KT looks at you. It would take a blind person to miss what's going on there. It's disgusting."

She pulling at straws now and she's knows it. Yes, she's seen how that new American girl with the _stupid_ name and the _stupid_ hair stares longingly after her ex-boyfriend, but then, so does the entire female half of the school, the other new student, Willow, included. That doesn't mean there is anything going one between them. Only Patricia's noticed them sneaking off together the way they used to and sitting together at breakfast and dinner. So comfortable with each other it makes her sick. Mostly because it's so desperate and needy and weird, but a little part of her hates it because she misses how they used to be just like that only with soft kisses and gentle touches added into any already incredible mixture of quiet conversations and loud laughter.

She doesn't remember the last time she laughed.

Eddie scoffs loudly taking another step closer and another until they are only an arm's length apart.

"Oh come off it, Yacker," he spits out her old nickname, slamming his fist hard on the countertop, "so what if she does like me? Does it look like I care?"  
Now Patricia is the seething one. Of course he cares. Patricia has seen the appreciative glances as the all boys' eyes roam. Everyone thinks little miss, tiny, tan and pretty is bloody perfect. If KT threw herself at Eddie it's not like he'd say no. He's said yes to worse.

"You'd take her if she offered," she is up in his face now, her voice far too loud for so late in the night. Normally it would occur to her not shout so loud, but she is so engrossed with hating Eddie and wanting him to hate her that she doesn't notice much else than his narrowed eyes and his deeply manly smell. On top of that, she can still smell spearmint on his breath, which is shallow and furious. It makes her want to taste it on her breath too.

"No I wouldn't!"

"Yes you would, Slimeball! I've seen the way-"

"What, the way she looks at me?" his voice is so much louder than hers now, deep and booming around the empty kitchen and off the bare walls. They are almost closer to each other than they were last night. If she breathed deeply enough his bare chest would bump off her barely clad one. "oh my God, you're jealous."

It hangs there in the air for a second, loud and static. He is just regarding her with a wry, smug smile and which makes her mad and frustrated and annoyed all at the same time.

"No, I'm not!" she argues, narrowing her eyes. She cannot even give him one of her death glares because she wiped all her makeup off before going to bed. She feels vulnerable and young again, not eighteen and nearly finished school. She feels confused and lost and she wants to tell him yes, she is jealous, yes, she wants him to kiss her again, just like he did last night.

Not that she's going to, though.

But then, before she even knows what's happening, his hands are on her waist, his fingers tightening on her hips through the flimsy material of her top. She realises she'll probably have even more bruises than she first expected but now she definitely doesn't care because he's pulled her flush against him and she can feel his fleeting heart beat and his breath on her face and then he is leaning down and he presses his lips softly to her, so much more gentle than earlier that it almost makes her tear up.

He pulls back slightly, so their lips are only grazing, "yes you are," he whispers, against her "and I love it."

Then his lips are on her again, hungry and strong and he is pushing her back into the corner. Her hands are in his hair, pulling through it and then on his broad shoulders moving with her. She pushes her mouth more fiercely on his, opening it as their tongues entangle. This is what she missed, this whole frenzy and anticipation and she knows it. Meeting in the night, secret, stolen kisses and knowing that he cares about and wants only her.  
Then his hands moved down slowly, until they reach her thighs and grip them, before hoisting her onto the counter, his lips following hers the whole time. He steps closer so that he is between her legs and she is wrapping them around him, enclosing him, so that even if he wanted to leave he couldn't.

Her hands travel to shape his chest, her finger nails digging into the soft skin of his shoulder and his pecks and his abs. Gosh, she thinks, he really is gorgeous. He really is so beautifully familiar. Then her fingers are on the waist band of his pyjama bottoms, dipping underneath them, tracing his outline.

His hands roam too, up under her t-shirt so they graze her chest and explore her back. They are touching, skin on skin in too many places to count as he pulls his lips from hers and regards her with a look that's so deep and emotive she can barely bring herself to return it.

"I love you."

There it is, what they've both been waiting to hear for months, what they've both known all along. It may be naive and weak, but Patricia doesn't care, she believes him. She believes him now that what happened with Nina was an accident and that nothing has happened with KT or Willow or any other girl, because, God knows, you can't fake that kind of emotion.

"I love you too," she murmurs, they are all over each other again in a second, except this time, he has his fingers around the hem of her top, tugging at it. He almost has it up over her head when a large cough interrupts their ministrations.

Eddie drops her t-shirt quickly and spins around, so Patricia is forced to untangle her legs. Peering around his broad arms, she is mortified to see the entire house, Trudy included, watching them with various expressions. She can see Amber, grinning widely and Jerome and Mara with coupled looks of amusement. Trudy looks visibly worried by their antics, but Patricia can see a hint of a small smile.

Behind her are the new girls, Willow looking fairly confused and an angry KT looking upset. Patricia can't help but smirk, thrusting her chin higher. She can see Amber trying to suppress giggles. It would always prove fruitless to try and take Eddie away from Patricia. He was _hers_.

"Patricia," Trudy says slowly, cautiously, "Eddie. Your shouting... Em, the noise... You woke the rest of the house up." She looks uncomfortable and embarrassed and is shifting from foot to foot, like she would pay to be anywhere else in the world. Patricia thinks it's so amusing, that when she catches Eddie eye, crinkled with a wide smile, she can't help but let out a short chuckle that turns quickly into the kind of laughter than has you bending over, clutching your stomach, especially as Amber joins in followed quickly by Eddie and the rest of their housemates that have been around longer than four months. Patricia almost falls off the counter, she is that amused, so that Eddie wraps a protective arm around her waist, still laughing.  
Eventually she can control herself enough to look back at Trudy, whose eyes, for some reason, are full of relieved tears. She just shakes her head, pressing a finger to her lips, before turning around and pushing her way through the other residents. It takes Patricia a moment to realise that Trudy had been much more worried about her than she'd guessed. She'd not been herself, she knew, but she didn't think her house mother had noticed.  
Quickly, there is a surge as Amber runs forward, followed by Mara and Jerome then Alfie and Fabian and they all engulf each other in a group hug, the kind of cheesiness Patricia hates. But she can hear things whispered like "I missed you" and "Thank God you're back." Then in amongst the rest of their happy reunion and the confused musings of the two new residents, she can hear "I love you" and she knows things are going to be okay.

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**So that's that. I'm very, very sorry for the long wait, I didn't mean for it to take this long, but the version I had planned out in my head just wasn't working, so eventually this is what poured out of me.  
I'd like to thank you all for your reviews of the last chapter. Shout out to musicalwheaten who reviewed. I absolutely adore your videos! Thank you very much, everyone, for your kind words.  
Again if anyone has any requests or prompts I'd be happy to fill them.  
Thanks again **


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